The X-tales: Cinderella
by Xfairy
Summary: You don't know Cinderella???!!!


** Title: The X-tales: Cinderella  
Author: X_fairy (x_fairy@gmx.net)  
Disclaimer: The X-files belong to CC and Mulder and Scully belong to each other, not to me! I don't know who holds copyright for Cinderella (NOT the Disney version), but it isn't me either! No infringement intended!  
Rating: Harmless (Well.... as harmless as fairytales are....)  
Category: R  
Spoilers: None  
Archive: Anywhere, with my name and addy, but please let me know!  
Feedback: Please! I feel I earned it, it took me more hours than I care to admit to find those verses!!! Flames will be used to burn the stepmother (whose name happens to be Diana) and her daughters (who happen to be called after their mother - think Arthur Dales) on stake!  
Summary: You don't know Cinderella???!!!  
  
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The X-tales: Cinderella  
By X_fairy  
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Once upon a time, there was a girl called Dana whose mother was very ill. On her deathbed, the mother made Dana promise she'd always be nice and good. Then she closed her eyes and died. Dana was a very good girl. Every day, she went out and cried at her mother's grave.   
Winter came and covered the grave in snow, and still Dana visited her mother's last rest each morning. When spring's sunshine had dried away the last snow, her father married again. Dana's stepmother was a beautiful woman, but nasty and evil in her heart. She brought along two daughters who resembled their mother in features and spirit.  
They would not let Dana eat at a table with them, and said, "If she wants bread, she'll have to earn it," and made Dana do all the work. She had to get up before the break of day to fetch water and make breakfast, and often the nasty sisters would empty a bucket of peas and lentils into the ashes at the hearth for poor Dana to pick them out. But after a hard day of work, Dana was not allowed to sleep in a real bed, but had to lie down in the ashes, and since she was always dirty and dusty, the sisters called her Cinderella.  
One day Dana's father was heading out to a long trip. He asked the sisters what they wanted him to bring home as presents. "Fine clothes," said one of them, "pearls and gemstones," the other.  
"And what shall I bring for you, Cinderella?"  
"Just bring for me the first twig to brush your hat on your way home, Father," said Dana.  
And so he bought wonderful robes, pearls and jewels for the stepsisters, and on his way back, when he was riding through the green woods, a hazel-twig pushed his hat off, and he broke it and took it with him. When he came home, he gave his stepdaughters what they had wished for, and to Dana he gave the twig from the hazel-tree. She thanked him and went to plant the twig on her mother's grave. She cried so hard that her tears watered it, and it grew and was a fair tree. Dana went there three times a day and cried, and a little white bird came to sit in the tree, and whenever Dana expressed a wish, the bird cast down what she had wished for.  
One day, the king would hold a festival for his son to look for a bride, and all fair maids were to be invited. The two stepsisters were going too, and they told Dana to comb their hair and clean their shoes. She obeyed, but cried, as she also wanted to go, and begged her stepmother to allow it.  
"You, Cinderella," she said, "you're full of dust and dirt, and want to attend a marriage? You don't have robes and shoes and want to dance?" But when Dana pleaded again, she finally said, "Here I poured a pot of lentils into the ashes, if you will have sorted them out in two hours, you can come with us."  
Dana went out the backdoor and called out,  
  
"Birds in the sky, birds in the eaves, in the leaves, in the fields, in the castles and ponds...  
Come, little birds, down from the eaves, and the leaves, over fields, out of castles and ponds...   
Quick, little birds, flick through the ashes.  
Pick and peck, but swiftly, sift through the ashes, into the pot..."  
  
And two small white doves came in the kitchen window, and after them the turtledoves and then all the birds under the sky, and they sat down by the ashes and started picking, and picked all the good corns into the pot. Barely an hour later, they were all finished and flew out again, and Dana brought the bowl to her stepmother, and was happy as she believed that she could come along to the marriage. But the stepmother said, " No, Cinderella, you don't have a robe, you can't dance, you'll only be laughed at."  
But when Dana cried, she said, "If you can pick two bowls of lentils out of the ashes in an hour, you can come with us," and thought, 'She'll never finish that.'  
When she had emptied the two bowls, Dana went out the backdoor and called out,  
  
"Birds in the sky, birds in the eaves, in the leaves, in the fields, in the castles and ponds...   
Come, little birds, down from the eaves, and the leaves, over fields, out of castles and ponds...   
Quick, little birds, flick through the ashes.  
Pick and peck, but swiftly, sift through the ashes, into the pot..."  
  
And two small white doves came in the kitchen window, and after them the turtledoves and then all the birds under the sky, and they sat down by the ashes and started picking, and picked all the good corns into the pot. After barely half an hour they were finished and flew out again, and Dana carried the pot out to her stepmother, happily believing that she'd be allowed to come along now. But the woman said, "That won't help you either way, you can't come, you have no robes and can't dance, we'd only be ashamed of you." And with these words she turned her back on Dana and hurried of with her two proud daughters.  
Home alone, Dana went to her mother's grave and said to the hazel tree,  
  
"Shiver and quiver, little tree,  
silver and gold throw down on me."  
  
And the little bird in the tree gave her a golden and silver dress and small shoes of silver and silk. Dana quickly put on the dress and hurried to the ball. Her sisters and her stepmother didn't recognize Dana, as beautiful as she was in the golden robe, and thought she must be a foreign princess. They didn't even think of their Cinderella and believed her to be sifting through the ashes at home.  
The prince, whose name was Fox, took Dana's hand and danced only with her. They danced until late at night, and when Dana wanted to go home, he said, "I'll come along and escort you," as he wondered where she might live. But Dana escaped him and hid in the tree with the doves. Fox called Dana's father to tell him a girl had hidden in his tree, and he thought, 'Might that be Cinderella?' They had to bring axes and hatchets to bring down the tree, but there was nobody in there, and when they entered the house, Dana lay in the ashes in her dirty old clothes, she had quickly jumped out of the tree in the back and ran over to the grave to take off her robe and sit at the hearth with her gray gown.  
The next day, when the ball continued, Dana once again asked the hazel tree for help,  
  
"Shiver and quiver, little tree,  
silver and gold throw down on me."  
  
This time she received an even prouder robe than the day before, and golden shoes, and when she appeared on the ball, everyone was astonished at her beauty. Fox had awaited her, and again he only danced with her. At night when Dana wanted to go home, he wanted to accompany her, but she escaped once more. But this time he had tricked her, he had had the stairs pitched, and Dana lost her left shoe in running down. Fox picked it up, and the next morning he proclaimed that none other should be his wife as the girl to fit this shoe. The two sisters were hopeful, as they both had beautiful feet. The oldest took the shoe to her room to try it, and when she couldn't manage to get her big toe into the small shoe, her mother said, "Cut off the toe - once you are queen you need not walk anymore." The girl cut her toe off, squeezed her foot in and went out to the prince, trying to ignore the pain. And so Fox took her away as his bride. But when they passed the grave, the two little doves on the hazel tree called,  
  
"Boo hoo, boo hoo,  
blood in the shoe,  
the shoe is too small,  
not the right bride at all."  
  
He looked down at her foot and saw blood running out of the shoe, and immediately turned his horse to take the false bride home. He said to their mother that it was not the right girl, and that the other sister should try the shoe. She too went to her room, and her toes all fit into the shoe, but her heel was to big. Her mother gave her a knife and spoke, "Cut off some of the heel - once you are queen you need not walk anymore." The girl cut off part of her heel, squeezed her foot into the shoe and went out to the prince, trying to ignore the pain. And so Fox took her away as his bride. But when they passed the hazel tree, the two little doves called again,  
  
"Boo hoo, boo hoo,  
blood in the shoe,  
the shoe is too small,  
not the right bride at all."  
  
He looked down at her foot and saw blood draining her white stocking, and once more turned his horse to take the false bride home. "This is not the right girl either," he said, "Don't you have another daughter?" - "No," the father answered, "there's only the dirty little Cinderella, my first wife's daughter - but she can hardly be the bride." Fox told them to bring her out, but the stepmother said, "No, she's too dirty, she can't come out." But as he insisted, they called Dana. She first washed her hands and face, and bowed in front of the prince who gave her the golden shoe. Then she sat on a stool, took of her heavy wooden shoes and tried the golden slipper that fit as if made for her. And when she stood up and Fox saw her face, he recognized the beautiful girl that had danced with him and called, "This is the right bride!" The stepmother and the sisters paled with anger, but he took Dana away, and when they passed the hazel tree, the doves called,  
  
"Boo hoo, boo hoo,  
no blood in the shoe,  
the shoe is not too small,  
this is the right bride at all!"  
  
And they both flew down and sat on Dana's shoulders, and stayed there. On the wedding, the two sisters came to get part of the lucky day, and when they walked left and right of the pair into church, the doves picked each at one of their eyes, and in walking out, they picked at the other eye, and so they were hit with blindness for the rest of their lives as punishment for their malice and depravity. Dana and Fox, however, lived happily ever after.   
  
The End!!!  
  
I did it!!!! I finally finished it!!! The verses about the birds and the tree are from the musical "Into the Woods", but the ones about the shoes are by me alone!! Feedback please!!!   
  
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